Jailed Salinas Cousin Offers
Glimpse of Mexico's Elite

Until recently, Carlos Enrique Cervantes de Gortari was a forgotten man in a federal prison, teaching positive-thinking classes to his fellow inmates while quietly serving a 15-year sentence in Anthony, Texas, for cocaine trafficking.

Then came a raft of accusations by U.S. and Swiss law-enforcement officials suggesting that narcotics kingpins had infiltrated high circles of Mexican government. And suddenly the forlorn, 60-year-old...